The Morning After
In The Dwelling of the Light , a reflection on icons of Christ, RowanWilliams (the former archbishop of Canterbury), reflecting on the icon tradition of the Eastern Church, wrote, Orthodox theologians have said—surely rightly—that the moment of resurrection could not be depicted, any more than you could depict the moment of creation or the moment of incarnation. You cannot paint a picture of the simple act of God… You can only show the effect of God’s action: the creation itself carrying the mystery of God in its very being, the human situation transformed by God. So you can depict the Risen Christ, but not the event of the resurrection… So the classical Easter icon shows something more than an historical event: it shows, you might say, the effect of God’s action on human history up to that point, and implicitly, the effect of God’s action on all history. Just as the transfiguration icon shows the light of Jesus’ presence illuminating Moses and Elijah, this icon sho...